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Gang terrorized Kamloops region

Rough, lawless, violent "¦ descriptions of the American Wild West in the 1880s were the opposite of north of the border. Living under British law, Canada's western provinces were generally regarded as orderly, law-abiding and safe. Until the McLean Gang in southern British Columbia got going, that is.

The McLean boys were the sons of a Hudson's Bay Company chief trader-turned-rancher. Working in the Kamloops area at Thompson's River Post, the Scottish-born Donald McLean "improved horsebreeding and developed larger herds; he also, with his growing sons [including kids from his first spouse], amassed livestock of his own," Mary Balf said in Dictionary of Canadian Biography. While he kept a soft side for his family, McLean displayed violent tendencies in his work, killing several innocent Indigenous people in revenge for a fellow fur trader's murder. McLean earned the hostility of the Indigenous community. He resigned from HBC in 1861.

Six years earlier, McLean had started a second family when he married Sophia Grant, a Colville Native American from Fort Colville (near Kettle Falls, Wash.). The family settled in the Caribou region and made their living by operating a restaurant. Three sons were welcomed into the McLean household. However, the quiet family life was not to last.

Upset by European dominance, fur trader unfairness and other unpleasant situations, some members of Chilcotin rose up in anger, killing several white workmen. McLean joined an expedition in response. Scouting on his own, he was ambushed and killed.

Without their father's steadying presence, the younger McLean boys -- Allan, Charlie and Archie -- were at first considered brats, and then "wild half-breeds disclaimed by both Indians and the immigrant white society," Balf noted. In an economic depression with few jobs available, the young men and their friend Alex Hare turned to rabble-rousing and then aggression.

Starting with demands and thievery, the McLeans became vicious thugs. "Charlie McLean bit off the nose of a native boy during an argument and the gang beat a Chinese man near Savona nearly to death," Steve Thornton wrote in Explore Gold Country. Stealing ammunition, flour, liquor, horses and more, the brothers and Hare earned several nicknames, including "The Kamloops Outlaws." Residents of the peaceful Nicola Valley region were frightened.

Arrested for their actions by government agent and Const. John Tannatt Ussher, the McLean brothers broke out of jail. A $500 reward was issued for their capture. The leader and oldest brother at age 24, Allan McLean was a married man with children. Charlie McLean and Hare were 17, and the youngest brother, Archie, was only 15 years old. The brief stint behind bars did nothing to slow them down; they continued to raid, rob and threaten the community.

On Dec. 3, 1879, rancher William Palmer spotted Charlie McLean riding one of his horses. Palmer reported the situation to Ussher; warrants were issued for the McLeans and Hare. A small posse composed of Ussher, Palmer, railway man Bill Roxborough, rancher John McLeod and a tracker, Amni Shumway, was deputized to nab the culprits. Not expecting troubles, the posse rode out with only a minimum of arms for protection.

Finding the outlaws near where Palmer had earlier observed them, the lawmen found themselves under fire. Gunfire was returned, but posse weapons jammed. Only Allan McLean was injured. Familiar with the offenders, Ussher walked toward the young men in an attempt to reason with them.

"Alex Hare saw Ussher and attacked him with a knife, stabbing him repeatedly," John Keranen said in BC Historical News, Spring 1998. "As Ussher grappled with Hare, Archie ran up and shot Ussher in the head at point-blank range." McLeod was shot in the face and in the leg. "Realizing they were outmatched, the posse beat a hasty retreat." The brutal murderers further mutilated the dead constable's remains and "stripped Ussher's body of his possessions."

The gang rode off with Ussher's horse, boots and handcuffs. Bragging about the murder, they stole weapons and incited fear as they went. After arguing with sheep herder Jim Kelly, the men shot him and again took the belongings from the dead man. They tried to enlist the support of Allan's father-in-law, Chief Chillihetza of the Okanagan Tribe, to start a revolt against the white Europeans. He declined, Keranen said, "claiming that an uprising would mean the end of his people."

Rather than fleeing across the border, the gang laid low in a log cabin on Douglas Lake Reserve, probably because Allan McLean's wound was not healing. Unknown to the gang, a hefty $1,000 reward was offered for their capture, and a posse of about 75 well-armed and trained men was being formed in Kamloops. The authorities would not be stymied this time. On Dec. 10, the cabin was surrounded. The McLean brothers and Hare were trapped.

Refusing to come out, the gang sat tight for three days. On Dec. 13, the fugitives overheard the posse's discussion about burning down the cabin to force them out. Hungry and thirsty, "the outlaws offered to surrender, provided only that they were not put in irons," according to legal website Duhaime.org. "The posse agreed, the gang surrendered and were instantly put in irons."

Hauled to jail in Kamloops, the men were kept under heavy guard, not only against attempts of escape but to protect them against hostile vigilantes. Word came that some local citizens threatened to "shoot them as quick as a coyote and others saying that they would hand them to the first tree handy," said Keranen. Fortunately, no lynch mob appeared. To ensure a fair trial, the gang was transported to New Westminster.

Hearing all of the evidence in March 1880, Judge Henry Crease convicted the McLeans and Hare. Sentencing the young men to hang, Crease's verdict expressed his disgust at their acts. "You have been found guilty of a foul, atrocious murder, marked by peculiar brutality, and, in the case of one or perhaps two of you, aggravated by the additional stain of base ingratitude. "¦ There is not one single redeeming feature, one extenuating circumstance to put forward in mitigation of your offence."

The men enjoyed a brief respite when the conviction was overturned on appeal due to a technicality, but their relief did not last. The McLean Gang was again found guilty at a second trial in November 1880. The three brothers and Hare were executed on Jan. 31, 1881. Their reign of terror was over.

Using good sense, the children of Allan McLean did not follow in their father's footsteps into lawlessness. At age 44, George McLean enlisted for duty in the Second World War and was shipped to the European battlefields.

"In April 1917, he launched a solo attack on a group of enemy soldiers at Vimy Ridge. Armed with about a dozen grenades, he singlehandedly captured 19 prisoners and killed almost as many troops," stated Jason Hewlett in the Kamloops Daily News, Aug. 24, 2013. A war hero, George McLean was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his bravery.